M.T. Anderson

1968-

Reviewed by
Todd and Bill

Click covers for publication dates and available formats
(hardback, paperback, audio book, download, Kindle).

Matthew Tobin (M.T.) Anderson has written several books for children and young adults. They blend the genres of adventure, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction.

Thrilling Tales — Publisher: What sort of madman would unleash an army of stilt-walking, laser-beaming, thoroughly angry whales upon the world? Who cares! All that matters is that his dastardly plan be foiled. Lucky for Lily Gefelty, her two best friends are the intrepid stars of their own middle-grade series novels: Jasper Dash (better know as the Boy Technonaut) and Katie Mulligan (beloved by millions as the heroine of the Horror Hollow series). It's going to take all their smarts to stop this insane, inane plot from succeeding.

M.T. Anderson Thrilling Tales Whales on Stilts, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen, Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware


	Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation — (2006- ) Publisher: It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.
The Pox Party: A Pox on Rationalists! (At least, these rationalists!) "I do not believe they ever meant unkindness." So Octavian says of those to whom he was an experiment, to those who claimed he was chattel, to those who weighed his excrement daily and compared it to his intake. It is perhaps this book's most frightening truth that he is correct. Octavian and his mother were sold into slavery in the 1760s, in Boston, to The Novanglian College of Lucidity. These men were rationalists, and sought to discover — once all of the niceties are removed — whether the Negro was inferior to the European. Octavian was taught "the arts and knowledge of the physical world...the strictest instruction in ethics...kindness, filial duty, piety, obedience, and humility," Latin, Greek, the violin, and while learning these things, he was dressed in silk and lavished with luxuries. Yet we immediately see the detached scientist in his caretakers, as Octavian describes experiments in which they timed the drowning of a dog, dropped alley-cats from high places to "judge the height from which cats no longer shatter," and tried to teach a girl "deprived of reason and speech" the usage of verbs by beating her "to the point of gagging and swooning." And yet they never meant unkindness. While Pox Party is a book of fiction, it is useful to remember (as Anderson calls us to at the end) that while the College of Lucidity is a fictional entity, the kind of experiments they conducted indeed took place, and the question of inferiority was one that was much discussed. Octavian, with his mother, Mr. Gitney, and Dr. Trefusis, excelled. He became literate beyond their hopes and could play the violin as a virtuoso. Without a doubt, his education was better than the vast majority of children his age, white or black. But then the College's benefactor dies and a new benefactor arrives, represented by Mr. Sharpe, who presupposes the inferiority of the Negro and demands that Octavian's studies be changed...changed to ensure his failure. As with all stories, once change is introduced, the stakes increase. M.T. Anderson tells this story with a remarkably sure hand, using spot-on eighteenth century diction and grammar as much as he could without losing his intended audience — young adults. The majority of the story is told through the backward-looking eyes of Octavian himself, but Anderson also employs newspaper clippings and a variety of letters (most entertaining were the set from the soldier, Evidence Goring, to his sister and mother) to further authenticate the tale and ground it. All of the characters are three-dimensional. The plot is handled with meticulous care, moving cautiously in the beginning, like an orchestral score, building with intensity to the moment of change, the crescendo which, not surprisingly, also occurs side-by-side with a telling of a part of the war. Setting his story against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War proved brilliant, for the irony of slave-owners sending slaves not promised freedom to fight in their stead for the cause of liberty, can be lost on no one. This is without question one of the most moving books I have read in some time. The character of Octavian is one of the most unique and fully realized I have ever encountered in young adult fiction. That Pox Party won the National Book Award should be no surprise. —T.B. Adapted from a review originally published 3/2007 Todd's review of Octavian Nothing 2. The Kingdom on the Waves is coming soon...

Stand-alone novels:

The Game of Sunken Places — (2004) Grades 9-12. Publisher: When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative's strange manse . . . well, they should know better than to go, since this is a middle-grade adventure novel. But they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly become players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side.

The Game of Sunken Places: Dark, humorous, innovative, absolutely no cliches — flawless

Don't trust anything or anyone! As much as I hate to use clichés, in M.T. Anderson's The Game of Sunken Places absolutely nothing is as it seems, and clues hide themselves in the strangest of places. Oftentimes, the solution that seems most obvious is not the solution. What a wonderful book of twists and turns!

I was won over immediately by the writing style in The Game of Sunken Places. At once dark and flippantly humorous, Anderson has a fine eye for detail, and more than once I found myself laughing out loud, only to be silenced moments later by a suspenseful turn of events. You'll find, in the beginning, that a dictionary will come in handy, and I urge you to look up any words you don't understand. More often than not, you'll find that the knowledge of the word enriches the reading experience, and the quirkiness of the "big word" is appropriate for the setting. For example, "phthisis" means pulmonary tuberculosis and as it's used in the book, it's hysterical. Really.

The actual game described in the title is astonishingly innovative; I've never seen anything like it. To say anything about it gives too much away, so I'll hope only that you trust me. The Game of Sunken Places should have a broader reading audience. I have a very difficult time imagining someone reading this book and not being highly entertained, for there is ample entertainment value, of myriad kinds, on every page. If you take my recommendation, you won't regret it. —T.B.
Adapted from a review originally published 6/2004

The Game of Sunken Places: Bit muddled in both character and story

The Game of Sunken Places has at its core several relatively humdrum concepts: a board game that plays for real, a hidden kingdom, two friends (one timid, one outgoing), a race to save the (or a) world. This isn't so bad since so much fantasy works with the same basic materials. The question is whether the author transcends the familiar and here the answer tends to be no.

The story follows a pair of thirteen-year-old friends, Gregory and Brian, as they go up to Vermont to visit Uncle Max (not really related) and cousin Prudence. Tension is set from the start by a surprisingly dark intro piece set at Max's. Once the boys arrive, they become quickly embroiled in playing the game, or, as it's referred to by everyone, The Game, the board version of which they found in the old nursery. The boys must solve riddles; avoid near-fatal run-ins with their seeming opponent Jack; deal with trolls, ogres, elves; explore hidden cities and sunken rivers and so on.

The game play is somewhat jumbled and all too arbitrary, with little sense of import or menace despite the various pronouncements of impending doom. The boys wander from oddly named place to oddly named place with no real sense of meaning, even at the end when all is explained. The two boys are also a bit muddled, not sharply enough defined. The same can be said of all the characters save one, the troll, who stands out as the only character of any depth in the book.

In the end, neither the story nor the characters offer much of a compelling nature and while Game isn't a bad book, it doesn't rise to the level of much that is out there to read. Therefore not recommended. —B.C.

Thirsty — (1997) Publisher: From the moment he knows that he is destined to be a vampire, Chris thirsts for the blood of people around him while also struggling to remain human.

Todd's review coming soon...


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